German Linked to Synagogue Bomb Arrested

Published 7:00 pm, Friday, April 4, 2003

A German man under investigation in connection with a deadly attack on a Tunisian synagogue has been arrested in Saudi Arabia, the German Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

Saudi officials informed the German government earlier this week that they had arrested Christian Ganczarski, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said. Ganczarski left Germany late last year after prosecutors said there was not enough evidence to arrest him.

The German weekly Der Spiegel reported that the United States suspects Ganczarski of working closely with Osama bin Laden.

German federal prosecutors have said that another terror suspect told them Ganczarski had access to the innermost circle of al-Qaida leaders and may have been responsible for recruiting members in Germany.

Saudi officials have not responded to appeals by German authorities to allow them to investigate Ganczarski while he is in Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

Der Spiegel said German officials worry that he will be turned over to the United States and they will lose access to him.

The attack last April on the synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia, killed 21 people, 14 of them German tourists.

Authorities began investigating Ganczarski after tracing an intercepted phone call from Nizar Naouar, the Tunisian believed to have carried out the attack.

Because there are no charges against Ganczarski, Germany cannot ask for his extradition, said Hartmut Schneider, a spokesman for federal prosecutors.